Month: April 2017

I listened to the majority of this book on audiobook although I started it by reading the physical book and read some of the physical copy in-between. I’ve read Barry Lyga in high school and enjoyed his writing then. When I found this book in my library and read the concept I was interested.

Jasper “Jazz” Dent is a teenager in an average town. He has a loyal best friend and an awesome girlfriend. But he’s also the son of an infamous serial killer. Jazz’s father is in jail now but Jazz deals with the fact that he was way more immersed in his father’s secret life than he should have been. He witnessed aspects of his father’s murders. The cleanup after a kill. The trophy room. His father taught him how to be a serial killer. He learned about the human body and how to take it apart. He learned different ways to incapacitate someone. Ways to manipulate your victim into trusting you. Then his father was arrested and he was supposed to be a normal teenager.

He is for the most part. When someone starts killing in their small town again and the murders are just like his father’s people start to suspect him. Jazz has to clear his name. I felt like this was more about Jazz proving that he didn’t have to be like his father. He wanted to prove that he could use all the mess up stuff his father taught him to help people instead of hurt.To everyone else but mostly to himself. All the similarities he has to his father scares him. It’s what fuels him to find and stop this killer and was something I was excited to follow

Jazz’s relationship with his girlfriend Connie is important for a lot of reasons. Jazz wants to treat women differently than his father taught him. He doesn’t want to manipulate and think of them as play things or easily breakable. His father really messed with Jazz’s head and you see that early on. I liked how Connie gets involved with helping him figure out who the next victim may and isn’t completely removed from Jazz’s investigation. I didn’t mention that his girlfriend is black either which leads to issues with how Jazz has to deal with his grandmother if his girlfriend is coming over. The line of what is okay and what isn’t is blurry with Jazz at times. Without giving anything away that was one moment where I had to pause for a second.

Jazz’s best friend Howie is a hemophiliac. I have hemophilia and I do not see many characters with hemophilia in books. It was a surprise when that came up for me. I really liked Howie. He’s adorable. He’s also so loyal. Like ridiculously loyal.There would not be that many people I would go to a potential murder with. Especially as a person with a bleeding disorder. I was so concerned with Howie making it out of these books alive.

Honestly a little obsessed with reading from Jasper’s perspective right now. It’s kind of mesmerizing being in his head. It’s intense throughout the book. Not sure if I’m ready for the next book but I need the next book at the same time. I think this is a trilogy that I’m actually going to finish. Can’t wait to get started on the next one. Probably on audiobook since I thought this first book was fantastic on audiobook.

I finally was able to read Carrie Fisher’s Princess Diarist. The book had been on hold for a few months before I finally received the email that it was waiting for me at the library. This was such an enjoyable read for me. Carrie Fisher’s sense of humor is excellent. She’s able to see the humor in things to her life in a way that is really great. I cannot wait to read her other book. I’m thinking of actually picking it up when I think I’ll have time to read it since the library would take a while I’m sure. Also, I need to slow down on the library books. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the novel because I felt like this book is so quotable and special. I didn’t expect to gain nearly as much from this as I did. My favorite of my favorites is …

“The one I wore to kill Jabba (my favorite moment in my own personal film history), which I highly recommend your doing: find an equivalent of killing a giant space slug in your head and celebrate that.”
― Carrie Fisher, The Princess Diarist

This first quote had me shook, to be honest with you. I was sitting there thinking about my life and thinking about what the equivalent to slaying Jabba the hut would be for me. It didn’t take long to figure that out and it put some things in perspective for me. I fell off from writing last month but jumped right back in after reading this book. It was something I really needed that has been difficult with life recently. This was a big moment for me in the book even if there were many other moments as well. I’m in such a transitional period in my life right now. I think that’s the 20’s for a lot of people. I’m just trying to figure out where I want to be and who I want to be. It just made me think a lot.

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“I need to write. It keeps me focused for long enough to complete thoughts. To let each train of thought run to its conclusion and let a new one begin. It keeps me thinking. I’m afraid that if I stop writing I’ll stop thinking and start feeling.”

“I call people sometimes hoping not only that they’ll verify the fact that I’m alive but that they’ll also, however indirectly, convince me that being alive is an appropriate state for me to be in. Because sometimes I don’t think it’s such a bright idea. Is it worth the trouble it takes trying to live life so that someday you get something worthwhile out of it, instead of it almost always taking worthwhile things out of you?”

“It’s not nice being inside my head. It’s a nice place to visit but I don’t want to live in here. It’s too crowded; too many traps and pitfalls.”

“I’m frightened of the power I have given him over me and of how he will almost certainly abuse it, merely by not being fully aware he has it.”

“I’ve got to learn something from my mistakes instead of establishing a new record to break.”

“Do not let what you think they think of you make you stop and question everything you are.”

“It was one movie. It wasn’t supposed to do what it did—nothing was supposed to do that. Nothing ever had. Movies were meant to stay on the screen, flat and large and colorful, gathering you up into their sweep of story, carrying you rollicking along to the end, then releasing you back into your unchanged life. But this movie misbehaved. It leaked out of the theater, poured off the screen, affected a lot of people so deeply that they required endless talismans and artifacts to stay connected to it.”

Olivia is a book blogger, writer, and an avid reader. On her book blog, and in her Galaxy of Books, she reviews young adult, new adult and romance novels with a particular focus on diverse books. Olivia also creates other fun book related content for her readers.